Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1946

Given the option to name the five nominees myself, I’d find it difficult to remove more than one of those given a nomination. The first year after the war proved to be a very strong one, though, and so naturally there were some snubs. Topping the list for me is the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in A Matter of Life and Death, a truly engaging and beautiful movie. I think Jean Cocteau deserved a nod for Beauty and the Beast as well. I could see arguments made for Howard Hawks’s work on The Big Sleep, Charles Vidor for Gilda, Alfred Hitchcock for Notorious, and even Lewis Milestone for The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. I think it’s also worth saying that Marcel Carne’s Les Enfants du Paradis was a 1945 release. However, it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay in 1946, which would qualify it here. Even if not nominated, Carne deserved some sort of recognition for realizing a film of that much beauty under the conditions he did.

Weeding through the Nominees

5: I said above that I like four of the nominations. The one I have the most trouble accepting is Clarence Brown’s work on The Yearling. There’s nothing particularly wrong with The Yearling; it’s just the movie I like the least, and it’s the one where I see the least interesting work from the director’s chair. Frankly, I think it’s an overrated movie in general. We all know where the damn thing is going from the start. Part of that is the fault of the screenplay, but Brown didn’t manage to keep the movie from telegraphing the ending in the first 30 minutes.

4: If I can fault Brief Encounter for anything, it’s that the film is too timid. This is David Lean learning the craft of being a director, and a lot of the lessons he learned with this film show up in his grand, sweeping epics a decade later. There’s a lot to like with Brief Encounter, and it’s a film I’m happy to recommend. But there’s not enough David Lean in this to make it fully work for me. I like the nomination—Lean was already showing a lot of what would make him the director he eventually became, but there’s not enough here to move this to the top position.

3: The Killers may be my favorite screenplay from 1946. This is a film that took a very short story, gave us the entire short story in the first 10 minutes of the movie, and then built an entire backstory around that opening to present the film. The main character from Hemingway’s tale is here only for the first few minutes. It’s gutsy and one of the great noirs of its time. And I like Siodmak’s direction here and like what he was able to do with the tale. But the things I like best are the tight script, the tragic Burt Lancaster, and remembering that this is the first time I really liked Ava Gardner.

2: I go into Frank Capra films with a bit of a ready cringe, knowing that he can turn on the corn and the sap at will. I don’t do that with It’s a Wonderful Life, though, because this is Capra firing on all cylinders. It’s rare when someone that immersed in producing things so emotionally cheese-filled hits all of the notes so perfectly that we accept everything that happens. Capra did that with this film, and I wouldn’t have minded terribly had he won here. This is a textbook example of how to play with an audience’s emotions and how to make a huge chunk of exposition interesting. It’s fine work and deserved a nomination. I just wouldn’t give him the win.

My Choice

1: This leaves us with William Wyler and our ultimate winner, The Best Years of Our Lives. I think this is a film that has a problem or two, most notably being a little too long. But I accept that Wyler let things run a bit to tell a story that needed to be told for a time that needed to hear it. This could have very easily become maudlin and soupy, and instead it remains honestly emotional, balanced, and touching without cheating. Any tears this brings out it deserves and never cheats on the story it’s trying to tell. I like other movies from this year better, but Wyler did the best work, and the win was deserved.

This is a very strong year and you are right, most of those movies you mention in the opening deserves a spot. Best Direction is one of those categories where I tend to confuse the movies I like with the movies with great direction. A movie I hate can still have fantastic direction and vice versa. In 46 I love Brief Encounter and I would love to give it top spot for getting us so entirely under the skin of these two people and it is exactly the restraint that makes it work. But there is hard competition. The Killers is extremely well crafted. You really see the directors hand here and that is what matters in this category, so this would be the winner for me in front on Brief Encounter. Beauty and the Beast is well made too but I wonder if I would rather give it a Special Effects award than Best Direction. The jury is out on that one. Same with Les Enfant du Paradis. This would more be an award for Effort Under Difficult Circumstances. For me it fails to move me. Best Years of our Lives and Its a Wonderful Life are both great, but for me they are Best Picture candidates than Best Direction. They work fantastic, but is it because of the direction? I understand your ranking but this is a bloddy difficult year. In a good way.

For me, Best Picture is generally the movie I like the best or the actual best movie of the year. Best Direction is, to me, the best storytelling. That tends to be how I differentiate the two in my head. However, it's almost impossible not to blend the two on some level.

I was moved by Children of Paradise, but I also understand it's not a movie that will work for everyone.

Like others have said, 1946 is a big year; many of your suggestions are favourite films of mine, and I whole-heartedly agree that they could all have (or should have) been nominated. Unfortunately I haven't seen all of The Best Years of Our Lives, but from what I have seen, you made the right choice.

It's worth your time. When I say that The Best Years of Our Lives runs a little long, I mean I'd like to trim about 15 minutes from it. It's long for a reason, and had I seen it in 1946, I'd have probably accepted the length without quesiton.

What a strong year this was overall and although I'd swap your second and fourth placement I agree with all you wrote. Of the actual lineup Wyler would be my choice as well. All your suggestions of films that were missed are great, particularly glad to see the mention of Milestone for Strange Love of Martha Ivers, and if he had been nominated than Hitchcock would have been my choice for his taut handling of Notorious. I liked Children of Paradise-it's a visual treat-but never as much as others. Best Years of Our Lives is such a great film, it could have used a trim here and there but not much, looking at it now it seems incredible that so much amazing work in it was ignored. Fredric March is good, though he'd never be my choice for the prize, but Virginia Mayo, Teresa Wright and especially Dana Andrews and Myrna Loy are far better.

By happenstance Drew over at A Fistful of Films just posted an in-depth look at this year's films and his take on them yesterday on his site.

Thank you for mentioning Myrna Loy. Of all of the people never nominated for an Oscar, she's the one (well, her and Joseph Cotten) who I find the most baffling. I love her in this movie. My love of Children of Paradise almost certainly comes mostly from the story of how it was made. That anything could be made in those conditions is astonishing, and I find that film to be visually brilliant, even if it's long and the story is a bit drippy.

Of the nominees I'd rank them in the same order you did. Among those not nominated Children of Paradise definitely deserves to be there and I'd make it a very strong candidate to beat The Best Years of Our Lives. In fact, as I'm writing this I would pick that one, considering it was started while the war was still going on and had a leading lady that was under constant danger of retribution for being seen too cozy with the Nazis.

What a year 1946 was! I would have been happy with a bunch of the directors you mention, along with Hitchcock to take the Oscar. I have absolutely no problem with Wyler getting it. The more movies of his I see the more I realize what a great director he was. It's never anything flashy but more the way he so naturally choreographs groups to tell a story and gets great performances out of his actors.

Funny thing about Clarence Brown...five time Oscar nominee that I had never heard of before I started doing a 1001 movie blog....Some film buff am I turned out to be! Anyway, it's really a close call between the top two here. I think I agree with Best Years for director, but might sneak in It's a Wonderful Life for Best Picture. You also rightly mention Cocteau, Carne and Powell for consideration. A strong year indeed!

That award season, my top 2 are It's A Wonderful Life and Brief Encounter. The Yearling is a tad predictable, that the relationship with the mother will improve and that he'll have to deal with adversity with the pet deer. The boy's performance is good, and Gregory Peck is memorable as the father. A decent enough film, I agree it's not good enough to win best picture.

I was not able, unfortunately, to see The Killers (or The Yearling) before I compiled my personal awards, because they just aren't available anywhere. I really wish I'd had been able to see The Killers (apparently it's hitting TCM next week, so if I can I'm going to try and catch it).

As you saw, I keep Wyler and Lean but nominate Carne, Cocteau and Hitchcock, all of which were in your honorable mentions!

The Killers is hitting TCM in about a week, and The Yearling is playing on TCM at the end of November. It's predictable but worth seeing. If you're even remotely a noir fan, you'll really enjoy The Killers.

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I'm a father of two, married for more than 26 years. I teach English composition and communication at the college level and freelance as a copy editor and proofreader--something now supplemented with basic design and layout at the behest of my talented and very busy wife. I have written a scad of books (all non-fiction and completely unimpressive). I love movies, and watch several every week. My love of movies and a desire to review them has led me to create this page.
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